Providing an arts funding platform

It set me thinking. Given the supposed interest in buying arts from those who are not billionaires, could micro-funding model be applied to the arts world? For example if an artist was looking for funding for £5,000 looking for a work, then they could post a wish and then interested funders could chip in. In reverse, a group of potential funders could come together and form a syndicate to offer £5,000 to artists for projects.

The site would need a “space” to sell the works or tickets to the act and to raise a reasonable return to the investors and the artist. Transparently. It should be clear as to how much the work (we could be talking about drama or film) made back in terms of funding and what each party received, in terms of a group rather than at an individual level. Progress reports should be given and if any issues have arisen in the work (unplanned delays, technical problems, a funder or artist going bust).

The site / platform might provide technical assistance either through forums or hosting email forwarding, wikis, video, audio or image galleries or other storage needs as require for the project and then archive the sites / pages so that they are recoverable in the future. Emails sent / recieved using the site services should also be archived.

Of course that is the social level. The important thing would also be that the financial accountability on both sides. The site / platform would need to make sure that the finances are fully accountable and conform to the relevant standards of full accountability and transparency, even if no funds are ever cleared through the site but through services such as Paypal or similar. I suppose in extreme circumstances, then the proposed site / platform might need to be in a position to offer an escrow service for funding / payments made, which again should be entirely transparent and compliant.